At a gate of the Wei capital, Zilu ran into Zigao.

Zigao was on his way out. He told Zilu: The gate has already been shut.

Zilu said: I will go and see for myself.

Zigao said: You are too late. Do not walk into this disaster.

Zilu said: I have eaten a man's food. I do not run from his trouble.

Zigao left the city. Zilu went in.

It was the twelfth year of Duke Chu of Wei, the fifteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu. Inside the city, a father was taking the throne back from his son.

Zilu had missed the start of that seizure. What he arrived in time for was his own end.

I. Rooster and Boar

Zhong You, styled Zilu, was a man of Bian. He was nine years younger than Confucius.

He was coarse by nature, fond of courage and force, stubborn and blunt. He wore a cap in the shape of a rooster and carried a boar ornament at his belt, and he once bullied Confucius.

Roosters and boars are fighting animals. He wore his love of fighting on his head and hung it at his waist.

Confucius did not fight him. Confucius set out the forms of ritual and drew him in little by little.

Later Zilu put on the clothes of a scholar, presented the gift of a newcomer, and through one of Confucius's students asked to become a disciple.

In ancient times, a man entering service wrote his name on the register and gave himself over to the one he served, as a sign that he would keep faith until death. When Zilu became a disciple, it was with this rite.

The rooster cap came off for good. Caps, though, he took seriously all his life.

II. Courage

Zilu asked his teacher: Does a gentleman prize courage?

Confucius said: A gentleman puts what is right above everything. A gentleman with courage and no sense of right will make rebellion. A small man with courage and no sense of right will become a robber.

Once Confucius said: If my way does not prevail, I will get on a raft and float out to sea. The one who would follow me is probably You.

Zilu was delighted when he heard it.

Confucius went on: You, your love of courage exceeds mine. Beyond that there is nothing to take from you.

Zilu asked: When I hear something, should I act on it at once? Confucius said: Your father and elder brothers are still living. How can you act at once on what you hear? Ran You asked the same question, and Confucius said: Act on it at once.

Gongxi Hua did not understand why the same question got different answers. Confucius said: Ran Qiu holds back, so I push him forward. You has the drive of two men, so I hold him back.

When Zilu had heard one teaching and not yet managed to practice it, his only fear was to hear another.

Confucius told him: You, shall I teach you what knowing is? To know what you know, and to know what you do not know: that is knowing.

He also said: You, have you heard of the six virtues and their six faults? No. Sit down, and I will tell you. Love of straightness without love of learning turns into a cutting tongue. Love of courage without love of learning turns into disorder. Love of firmness without love of learning turns into recklessness.

Zilu played the se zither, and Confucius said: What is You's zither doing at my gate? After that, the other students stopped respecting Zilu. So Confucius said: You has climbed into the hall. He has just not yet entered the inner room.

One day Min Ziqian stood beside Confucius, respectful and upright; Zilu stood there looking hard and forceful; Ran You and Zigong were at ease. Confucius was pleased.

But he said one more thing: A man like You will probably not die a natural death.

III. Displeased

In the ninth year of Duke Ding of Lu, Yang Hu's rebellion failed and he fled to Qi. Soon after, Gongshan Buniu, a retainer of the Ji family, seized the town of Bi in revolt against the Ji and sent someone to summon Confucius.

Confucius was fifty then. He had held to his way for a long time, and no one had employed him. He wanted to go. He said: King Wen and King Wu rose from Feng and Hao and became kings. Bi is small, but perhaps something could be done there.

Zilu was displeased and stopped him: If there is nowhere to go, then so be it. Why must it be Gongshan's place?

Confucius said: Would the man who calls me be calling me for nothing? If anyone would use me, I would build a Zhou again in the east.

In the end he did not go.

Another time, when Zhao Jianzi of Jin was attacking the Fan and Zhonghang families, Bi Xi, the steward of Zhongmou, seized Zhongmou in revolt and also sent for Confucius. Again Confucius wanted to go.

Zilu said: I once heard you say, Master, that a gentleman does not enter the house of a man who has himself done evil. Now Bi Xi has himself rebelled with Zhongmou. If you go, what does that mean?

Confucius said: Yes, I did say that. But did I not also say that what is truly hard cannot be ground thin, and what is truly white cannot be dyed black? Am I a gourd, to hang there and never be eaten?

That time, too, Confucius did not go.

What Zilu threw back at his teacher was his teacher's own words.

IV. Deceiving Heaven

Confucius fell gravely ill. Zilu had the other students act as household retainers, ready to manage the funeral.

When Confucius was a little better and learned of it, he said: For a long time now, You has been doing this kind of deceiving! I have no retainers, and you pretend I have. Whom would I deceive? Heaven? Besides, rather than die in the hands of retainers, would I not rather die in the hands of you, my students? And even if I am not given a grand burial, would I be left to die by the roadside?

Another time, when Confucius was gravely ill, Zilu asked to pray for him. Confucius asked: Is there such a thing? Zilu said: There is. The prayer says, We pray for you to the spirits above and below. Confucius said: My praying has been going on for a long time.

Zilu asked how to serve a ruler.

Confucius said: Do not deceive him. You may stand up to him to his face.

His teacher called him a deceiver, and he accepted it. When his teacher wanted to do something he thought wrong, he stood in the way. On this one point, both teacher and student kept their word.

V. Steward of the Ji

Later, Zilu became chief steward of the Ji family.

Confucius was then Minister of Crime of Lu, and he advised Duke Ding that the great houses should keep no private stores of arms, and the walls of their towns should not exceed a hundred zhi. As steward of the Ji, Zilu took charge of pulling down the walled towns of the three great houses.

The Shusun family pulled down Hou first. When the Ji were about to pull down Bi, Gongshan Buniu and Shusun Zhe led the men of Bi in an attack on the Lu capital. Duke Ding and the three heads of the Ji, Shusun and Mengsun houses took refuge in the Ji palace and climbed the terrace of Ji Wuzi. The men of Bi attacked it and could not take it, but they fought their way right up to the duke's side. Confucius ordered Shen Gouxu and Yue Qi down to strike back, and the men of Bi fled. The people of the capital pursued them and defeated them at Gumie. Gongshan Buniu and Shusun Zhe fled to Qi. Bi was then pulled down.

When it came to Cheng, the Meng family's town, its commander Gonglian Chufu told Mengsun: Pull down Cheng, and the men of Qi will come straight to the northern gate of Lu. Besides, Cheng is the Meng family's shield. Without Cheng there is no Meng family. That winter, Duke Ding besieged Cheng himself and could not take it.

Zilu sent Zigao to be steward of Bi.

Confucius said: You are ruining another man's son.

Zilu said: There are people there, and altars of the land and grain. Why must a man read books before he counts as learned?

Confucius said: This is why I dislike glib talkers.

Ji Ziran asked Confucius: Can Zhong You and Ran Qiu be called great ministers?

Confucius said: I thought you would ask about someone else, and you ask about You and Qiu. A great minister serves his ruler by the right way, and when that is impossible he steps down. You and Qiu, as they are now, can be called ministers who fill the ranks.

Ji Ziran asked: Then will they simply follow their master in everything?

Confucius said: In killing a father or a ruler, they would not follow.

VI. Setting Names Right

Zilu later went to serve in Wei. Many of Confucius's students held office in Wei.

The trouble in Wei goes back to Duke Ling.

In Duke Ling's thirty-ninth year, the heir, Kuaikui, fell out with Duke Ling's wife Nanzi and wanted to kill her. He arranged with his retainer Xiyang Su to strike at court. At the last moment Xiyang Su regretted it and did not act. Kuaikui kept signaling him with his eyes; Nanzi noticed, took fright and cried out: The heir wants to kill me! Duke Ling was furious. Kuaikui fled to Song, and later went over to the Zhao family of Jin.

In his last years Duke Ling wanted to make his youngest son, Ying, his heir. Ying declined. After the duke died, his widow wanted to set up Ying, and Ying said: The son of the exiled heir, Zhe, is still here.

So Wei set up Zhe. He was Duke Chu of Wei.

In the sixth month of that year, Zhao Jianzi of Jin set out to bring Kuaikui home. Yang Hu came up with a ruse: a dozen or so men put on mourning clothes and pretended to have come from Wei to welcome him. The men of Wei sent troops to stop them. Kuaikui could not get into the capital, so he occupied a town and held it.

From then on the father was outside and the son was on the throne. The other lords reproached Wei for it again and again.

The ruler of Wei wanted Confucius to take charge of his government. Zilu asked: The ruler of Wei is waiting for you to govern. What will you do first?

Confucius said: Without fail, I will first set names right.

Zilu said: Are you really that far from the point, Master? What is there to set right?

Confucius said: How rough you are, You! A gentleman keeps silent about what he does not understand. If names are not right, speech does not follow; if speech does not follow, nothing gets done; if nothing gets done, ritual and music do not flourish; if ritual and music do not flourish, punishments miss their mark; if punishments miss their mark, the people do not know where to put hand or foot. So what a gentleman says must be something that can be carried out. A gentleman is never careless in what he says.

In the Hereditary House of Confucius, I placed this exchange right after the line about the ruler's father being unable to come home.

Father and son: which was the ruler of Wei? The question Zilu thought too far from the point would later cost him his life.

VII. A Single Word

Confucius said: The one who can settle a lawsuit on half the testimony is probably You.

Zilu never let a promise wait overnight.

He wore a worn robe padded with old silk floss, stood beside men in fox and badger furs, and felt no shame at all. Confucius praised him with two lines from the Odes: Not envious, not grasping: what could he do that is not good? From then on Zilu recited those two lines all his life. Confucius said: Is that path all it takes to be good?

Ji Kangzi asked Confucius: Is Zhong You humane? Confucius said: In a state of a thousand chariots, he could be put in charge of the levies. Whether he is humane, I do not know. Ji Kangzi also asked: Could Zhong You serve in government? Confucius said: You is decisive. What difficulty would government give him?

In the spring of Duke Ai's fourteenth year, Ye, a grandee of the small state of Little Zhu, came over to Lu with the district of Gouyi. He set one condition: If Jilu will make the agreement with me, I need no covenant.

Lu sent Zilu, and Zilu declined.

Ji Kangzi had Ran You go and persuade him: A state of a thousand chariots, and they do not trust its covenant, but they trust your word. What humiliation is there in that for you?

Zilu said: If Lu goes to war with Little Zhu, I will not ask why; I can die under its walls. But this man has betrayed his own ruler. If I make good his terms, I am declaring what he did to be right. That I cannot do.

A whole state's covenant was worth less than one word from Zilu. Zilu kept that word back from a man who should not have it.

VIII. Pu and the House of Kong

When Zilu went to govern the town of Pu in Wei, he took leave of Confucius.

Confucius said: Pu has many strong men, and it is hard to govern. But I tell you this: be respectful and careful, and you can hold the bold in check; be generous and fair, and the people will draw close to you; be respectful, fair and calm, and you will repay your superior.

Later Zilu became steward of the estate of Kong Kui, a grandee of Wei.

Kong Kui's mother, Bo Ji, was Kuaikui's elder sister. Kong Kui was the exiled heir's nephew and Duke Chu's cousin. The salary Zilu ate came from this family.

In the autumn of Duke Ai's fifteenth year, Chen Guan of Qi passed through Wei on a mission to Chu. Zilu went to see him and said: Perhaps Heaven is using the Chen family as its axe. It has already hacked down the ruling house of Qi, and who will end up holding it cannot be known; whether it will let the Chen keep it to the end cannot be known either. Would it not be better to be on good terms with Lu and wait for the right time? Why make an enemy of it?

Chen Guan said: Yes. I accept your counsel. Send word of it to my younger brother.

The younger brother he meant is usually taken to be Chen Chengzi, who then held power in Qi.

This is the last time, in the Zuo Commentary, that Zilu spoke up for Lu. A few months later he died in Wei.

IX. The Intercalary Month

Kong Kui's father, Kong Yu, had married Kuaikui's elder sister, and she bore Kong Kui. The Kong household had a young servant named Hun Liangfu, tall and handsome. After Kong Yu died, Hun Liangfu became the lover of Kong Kui's mother.

Kuaikui was living then at the town of Qi (not the state of Qi). Kong Kui's mother sent Hun Liangfu to him.

Kuaikui told Hun Liangfu: If you get me back into the state and onto the throne, you shall wear a grandee's robes and ride a grandee's carriage, and three crimes worthy of death shall be forgiven you.

The two of them swore a covenant. Hun Liangfu pleaded Kuaikui's case with Bo Ji.

In the intercalary month of that year, Hun Liangfu and Kuaikui entered the Wei capital and lodged in the Kong family's outer garden. After dark the two of them covered their heads, got into a carriage driven by the eunuch Luo, and went to the Kong house. Luan Ning, the Kong family's steward, questioned them; they said they were concubines from a related family, and they were let in.

They went straight to Bo Ji's quarters. After the meal, Bo Ji went ahead holding a halberd, and Kuaikui and five men in armor followed, with a boar carried behind them on a cart, the animal for the covenant.

They cornered Kong Kui in the privy, forced him to swear a covenant, and then dragged him up onto a terrace.

Luan Ning was about to drink his wine, and the meat was not yet roasted, when he heard of the trouble. He sent word to Zilu. He had Huo harness the carriage, and drinking and eating as he went, he escorted Duke Chu, Zhe, in flight to Lu.

The boar that Zilu had once worn at his belt was now being hauled along to force a young man to swear.

X. Tying the Cap String

Zilu reached the city gate and met Zigao. Zigao left. He did not.

At the gate of the Kong house, Gongsun Gan was guarding the door. He said: Do not go in.

Zilu said: So it is you, Gongsun. You take a man's benefits and run from his trouble. I am not like that. I have taken his salary, and I must rescue him from his danger.

Just then a messenger came out, the gate opened, and Zilu went in.

He said toward the terrace: What use does the heir have for Kong Kui? Even if you kill him, someone will surely carry on against you.

He also said: The heir has no courage. Burn the terrace halfway down, and he will surely let Master Kong go.

Kuaikui was frightened when he heard this and sent Shi Qi and Yu Yan down to take on Zilu. They struck him with halberds and cut the string of his cap.

Zilu said: A gentleman may die, but his cap does not come off.

He tied the string again, and died.

Epilogue

In Lu, Confucius heard there was trouble in Wei and said: Chai will come back. You will die.

It turned out so.

Confucius had said: Since I have had You, no ugly words have reached my ears.

A record handed down among later followers of Confucius says that he wept for Zilu in the central courtyard. When people came to offer condolences, the Master bowed to them in return. When the weeping was over, he called in the messenger from Wei and asked how Zilu had died. The messenger said: They chopped him into minced meat. Confucius then had the minced meat in his house thrown out.

In the fourth month of the next year, Confucius died.

Kuaikui became ruler of Wei, Duke Zhuang. He reigned less than two years. When Jin attacked, the people of Wei drove him out; after he came back, he was attacked again by men of his own state, climbed over the wall to escape, fell and broke his leg, and hid in the house of a man named Ji in the Rong quarter. He held out a jade disk and begged for his life. The man said: If I kill you, where will the jade go? And he killed him.

Hun Liangfu, who had been promised three pardons from death, did not survive either. At a banquet, the duke's heir charged him with three crimes and had him killed.

Kong Kui fled to Song the year after Zilu died.

In the Biographies of the Disciples, I began Zilu with a rooster cap and ended him with a cap string.

When he came wearing a rooster cap to bully Confucius, he cared nothing for ritual. In his last moment, with the halberds already in him, he still wanted his cap on straight.

Confucius said he would not die a natural death. He died a terrible death, but his cap was straight.

Sources and editorial boundaries

1. Core sources: Shiji chapter 67, Biographies of the Disciples of Confucius, the entry on Zhong You (from "Zhong You, styled Zilu, was a man of Bian" to "At this time Zigong was on a mission to Qi for Lu"); chapter 37, Hereditary House of Kangshu of Wei, from Duke Ling's thirty-ninth year to Duke Zhuang and Duke Chu's return; chapter 47, Hereditary House of Confucius, the passages on Gongshan Buniu's summons, the dismantling of the three towns, Bi Xi's summons, "the ruler of Wei is waiting for you to govern" and "the next year, Zilu died in Wei." Read in Wikisource transcriptions of the Shiji, compared with the Wikisource Shiji sanjia zhu for chapters 67 and 37 (Jijie, Suoyin, Zhengyi; the plain-text chapter 37 lacks the passage on Duke Ling's thirty-ninth year, which was read in the annotated text). No modern translation is copied. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/史記/卷067 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/史記三家註/卷067 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/史記/卷037 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/史記三家註/卷037 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/史記/卷047

2. Cross-checked against: the Zuo Commentary, Duke Ding year 12 (Zhong You as Ji steward, the dismantling of the three towns, the attack from Bi, the failed siege of Cheng) and Duke Ai years 2 (Ying declines, Zhe set up, Zhao Yang escorts the Wei heir to the town of Qi, 戚), 14 (Ye of Little Zhu comes over with Gouyi; Zilu declines), 15 (Zhong You meets Chen Guan in autumn; in the intercalary month of winter Kuaikui enters the Kong house, Zilu dies, Confucius hears of the trouble), 16 (death of Confucius; Kong Kui flees to Song) and 17 (Hun Liangfu killed; Duke Zhuang killed by Ji of the Rong quarter); the Analects, Gongye Chang, Xian Jin, Wei Zheng, Yang Huo, Zi Han, Shu Er, Xian Wen, Yan Yuan, Zi Lu and Yong Ye; the Book of Rites, Tan Gong I (Confucius weeps for Zilu; the minced meat). All read in Wikisource transcriptions. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/春秋左氏傳/定公 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/春秋左氏傳/哀公 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/公冶長第五 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/先進第十一 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/爲政第二 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/陽貨第十七 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/子罕第九 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/述而第七 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/憲問第十四 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/顏淵第十二 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/子路第十三 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語/雍也第六 https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/禮記/檀弓上

3. The original classical wording of the key sayings paraphrased in the narrative, with exact sources, is listed in note 3 of the Chinese text (Shiji chapters 37, 47 and 67 with the Jijie and Suoyin, the Zuo Commentary for Duke Ding year 12 and Duke Ai years 2, 14, 15, 16 and 17, the Analects and the Tan Gong chapter as cited above).

4. Dates and divergent accounts (historical boundaries): (1) Date of the coup: the Zuo Commentary narrative places it in the intercalary month of winter in Duke Ai's fifteenth year, while the Spring and Autumn classic records "Kuaikui, heir of Wei, entered Wei from Qi [the town 戚]; Zhe, ruler of Wei, came fleeing" under the first month of the sixteenth year; the Biographies say "in the twelfth year of Duke Chu," and the Hereditary House of Confucius "the year after" the capture of the lin. The narrative takes Duke Ai's fifteenth year (480 BCE); the intercalary month may already fall in early 479 BCE by the modern calendar, and no exact conversion is attempted. (2) Zilu's words to Kuaikui differ in meaning: the Biographies have "What use does my lord have for Kong Kui? Let me kill him," while the Zuo Commentary and the Hereditary House of Wei have "What use does the heir have for Kong Kui? Even if you kill him, someone will surely carry on." Section X follows the Zuo and the Wei chapter. (3) The Biographies say Kuaikui "made rebellion together with Kong Kui"; the Zuo and the Wei chapter both say Kong Kui was cornered in the privy and forced into the covenant, and the Suoyin already notes that "it was not Kui's own intention to rebel." The narrative follows the latter. (4) The attackers are "Shi Qi and Hu Yan" in the Biographies and "Yu Yan" in the Zuo and the Wei chapter; the cap string is "struck and broken" in the Biographies, "broken" in the Zuo and "cut" in the Wei chapter. (5) Confucius's words on hearing of the trouble differ in all three: the Zuo, "Chai will come; You will die"; the Wei chapter, "Alas! Will Chai come back? You will die"; the Biographies, "Alas, You is dead!" The narrative follows the Zuo. (6) Where Kuaikui stayed: Su in the Wei chapter, Qi (the town 戚) in the Zuo. Section VI gives no name; section IX follows the Zuo. (7) The dismantling of the three towns: Duke Ding year 12 (498 BCE) in the Zuo, year 13 in the Hereditary House of Confucius; the narrative gives no year and the map follows the Zuo. Confucius was Minister of Crime when he advised that the great houses keep no stores of arms, according to the Hereditary House of Confucius. (8) The question "Is Zhong You humane?" is asked by Ji Kangzi in the Biographies and by Meng Wubo in the Analects (Gongye Chang); "Can he be called a great minister?" is asked by "Jisun" in the Biographies and by Ji Ziran in the Analects (Xian Jin). Section VII follows the Biographies, section V the Analects. (9) The Hereditary House of Confucius places Gongshan Buniu's summons after Yang Hu fled to Qi in Duke Ding's ninth year, when Confucius was fifty; the Zuo for Duke Ding year 12 separately records Gongshan Buniu leading the men of Bi against Lu. The Hereditary House places Bi Xi's summons after Confucius left Wei. The sources say only that Confucius did not go, and the narrative infers nothing further. (10) Zilu's position: the Biographies make him steward of the estate of Kong Kui, and the Suoyin quotes Fu Qian to the same effect; the Suoyin says Pu was a town of Wei. The Zuo calls him "Jizi," Luan Ning "sent word to Jizi," and Zilu speaks of "taking his salary." A "Ziboji zi" in the Zuo for Duke Ai year 16 is a different man and is not used. (11) Most Analects passages are undated; the order of the exchanges in sections II to V and VII is editorial (for example, Zigao's appointment at Bi is undated and is placed after the dismantling of Bi only for the narrative). Neither of Confucius's grave illnesses is dated. (12) Zilu's dates: the Biographies say only "nine years younger than Confucius." The library's "c. 542 or 543 to 480 BCE (disputed)" is a reference value, and the narrative does not calculate his age at death. (13) The minced-meat passage in the Tan Gong chapter belongs to the ritual tradition; "fu" is usually understood as "throw out." The narrative marks it as a record handed down by later followers of Confucius and does not treat it as a Shiji record. (14) The Biographies close with "At this time Zigong was on a mission to Qi for Lu," which agrees with the Zuo for Duke Ai year 15 (Zifu Jingbo went to Qi with Zigong as deputy); the Suoyin nevertheless comments that "Zigong's mission to Qi for Lu was in Duke Ai's fifteenth year; this text is probably mistaken." Its meaning is unclear, and it is recorded here for reference.

5. Facts and the limits of narration: All dialogue and judgments come from the texts above; the plain-language renderings are contemporary editorial paraphrase. No weather, scenery, inner thoughts or invented dialogue have been added. "A boar ornament at his belt" renders "pei jia tun" and the Jijie's "wore a boar"; the form of the ornament is not described. "Roosters and boars are fighting animals" follows the Jijie's "both creatures are brave." "In ancient times, a man entering service wrote his name on the register..." follows Fu Qian's explanation of "wei zhi," quoted in the Suoyin. Lines such as "Caps, though, he took seriously all his life," "What Zilu threw back at his teacher was his teacher's own words," "On this one point, both teacher and student kept their word," "The question Zilu thought too far from the point would later cost him his life," "A whole state's covenant was worth less than one word from Zilu...," "the last time, in the Zuo Commentary, that Zilu spoke up for Lu," "The boar that Zilu had once worn at his belt..." and "He died a terrible death, but his cap was straight" are editorial connections and comment, not statements of the sources. "The animal for the covenant" follows the Zuo's "a boar followed on a cart" and the forced covenant that comes next. "Kong Kui was the exiled heir's nephew and Duke Chu's cousin" is inferred from "Kong Yu married the elder sister of the heir Kuaikui, who bore Kui." "The younger brother he meant is usually taken to be Chen Chengzi" follows the Zuo's "send word to my younger brother"; Chen Guan, styled Ziyu, is usually taken to be the elder brother of Chen Heng (Chen Chengzi). "Huo" is a personal name ("Hu" in the Wei chapter). "Less than two years" follows the Zuo: Kuaikui came to power in the intercalary month of winter in Duke Ai's fifteenth year and died in the eleventh month of the seventeenth. "When Jin attacked, the people of Wei drove him out... fell and broke his leg" follows the same year: in the tenth month Jin attacked Wei and "the people of Wei drove out Duke Zhuang"; in the eleventh month he re-entered from Juan, Shi Pu attacked him, and he "went over the northern wall, fell and broke his thigh." Hun Liangfu was killed by the heir, Duke Zhuang's son Ji ("the heir had him dragged off, charged him with three crimes and killed him," Duke Ai year 17). "Kong Kui fled to Song the year after Zilu died" follows the Zuo for Duke Ai year 16, sixth month. Zilu stories already told in nos. 26 and 27 of this series (Confucius asking Zilu between Chen and Cai whether his way was wrong; the meeting with Nanzi; Changju and Jieni; the old man with the basket; Yan Yuan and Jilu stating their wishes; "if you led the three armies") are not repeated here, nor is the opening of no. 28 ("Zilu asked to go; Confucius held him back").

6. Map: three points. (1) The Lu capital (present-day Qufu area, Shandong), linked to 498 BCE (Zuo Commentary, Duke Ding year 12: Zhong You as Ji steward and the dismantling of the three towns; the men of Bi attack Lu and the duke and the three heads take refuge in the Ji palace), using the same Qufu area reference point as no. 26 (35.5957, 116.9875), representing the Qufu area only and not the exact site of the Ji palace. (2) The Lu capital (same point), linked to 481 BCE (Zuo Commentary, Duke Ai year 14: Ye of Little Zhu comes over with Gouyi, and Zilu declines), representing the area only; Little Zhu and Gouyi are not mapped. (3) The Wei capital Diqiu (present-day Puyang area, Henan), linked to 480 BCE (Zuo Commentary, Duke Ai year 15, intercalary month of winter: Kuaikui enters the Kong house and Zilu dies), using the OpenStreetMap area reference for Puyang County (35.7134, 115.0233); placing Diqiu in the Puyang area is the common identification, and the point represents the area only, not the site of the Wei capital or of the Kong house. Bian (Zilu's home), Bi, Hou, Cheng, Gumie, Pu, the town of Qi (戚), Zhongmou, Gouyi, Little Zhu and the Rong quarter are not mapped and are listed as unresolved places.

7. Rights: The ancient texts are in the public domain. The Chinese and English texts are original contemporary narratives.